Monday, July 10, 2006

Solidarity from Local 6186

Our readers should know by now that Laura and I are eternally grateful to have the Maid of Honor, the Mother of the Bride, and others working so hard on wedding preparations while Laura prepares to become Dr. Padilla and as we get ready to pick up our lives and move them to Colorado.

We'll be leaving behind some wonderful folks here, and some of these include the good people at the Texas State Employees Union. As many of you know, I worked as an organizer for over two years there, and leaving the position to look for an academic job was a tough decision for me. Recently Laura and I were touched to receive this lovely card with a picture of the 'pink dome' of the Texas Capital and a field of bluebonnets. Now what a pink capitol building is doing in a state like Texas is worth thinking about frequently, secretly... but it's nice to have this memento of Austin. The card came with a generous present that organizers from Houston, San Antonio, the Valley, Dallas, Lubbock, and Austin chipped in for, and Laura and I are deeply grateful for that. Thanks to Claire, Mimi, Mike, Katie, Ron, John, Tracy, Jim, Anne, Will, Chris, Debbie, Judy, Willie Mae, Myko, Phil, Terrysa, Santos, Maria, Johnny, and everybody else who contributed. I'll miss you all.

Our readers who enjoy political blogs might want to check out former organizer and eternal stalwart Samm Almaguer's online chronicle of the human services privatization fight here in Texas. It looks like most of the TSEU folks will be unable to attend--although one former UT organizer might make it. In any case, we (except for one of our most faithful Austin readers who--ahem--never joined) can all be comfortable knowing they're fighting the good fight for quality state services and justice on the job for state workers.